Page 102 of Steele

I knew she wouldn’t answer. End of day with a room full of kids ready to go home had to be chaos.

Brett: I’ll have a surprise for you later tonight.

The bell rang, and a moment later, kids poured out of the school. I watched the door. As soon as Lili saw me, she squealed and ran down the grassy embankment.

“You rode your bike,” she shrieked.

I climbed off my Harley and unhooked her new helmet.

She clapped her hands. “Is it mine?”

I chuckled. “I’m not wearing it.”

“Daddy.” Tears filled her eyes, and I pushed the helmet over her head and squatted down in front of her to adjust the chin strap.

“We got some rules.”

She vigorously nodded her head.

“One. You wear this helmet every time. No arguments.”

“Okay. I will.” She wiggled it on her head. “Do I look like a cat?”

“I thought it was a skunk.”

Her brows furrowed, and I laughed.

“Rule two. When you ride, you hold on to me or the harness at all times.” I reached into the saddlebag and grabbed the jacket. She had her backpack off and flung it onto the sidewalk before I could rip the tags off the sleeve. She practically vibrated with excitement. Once her gloves were on, she held out her hands to inspect them.

“I’ll be right back. I gotta show Miss Jaymi.” She took off up the grassy hill.

I lifted my head. Jaymi stood near the doors. Our gazes connected. Fuck me. She was both prim teacher and sexy as fuck. She wore her hair in a tight bun at the nape of her neck. A few strands had come loose and framed her face. A soft summer dress outlined her amazing tits, tucked in at her waist, and draped over her hips, skimming her thighs to just below her knees.

Lili closed the face shield on her helmet and pivoted her hips as she showed off her new gear. Jaymi smiled at me as she talked to Lili. I couldn’t hear what she said, but I suspected I was part of the conversation because her gaze kept coming back to me.

Finally, Lili waved with her pink gloves and rushed back to me. Once I had the harness secured around her, I held her backpack, and she slipped her arms through the straps.

“Can you climb on?”

Before I’d finished asking the question, she was on the bike and sitting on the pillion seat. I threw my leg over the bike, secured the harness straps around my chest, and fired the engine. The pipes rumbled, the seat vibrated, and Lili giggled behind me.

“Ready.” I tapped her leg and her little arms wrapped around me.

“Yep.”

I glanced over at Jaymi. She waved at Lili as I rolled the throttle and eased away from the curb. She held tight as we rode through town. I took it easy, letting her feel the natural movement of the bike. At slow speeds, there wasn’t much of a lean. We’d build to that. Right now, I didn’t want her scared. A few cars were parked in front of the strip mall. I pulled into a spot in front of Stormy’s dance studio. As soon as the kickstand was down, Lili was squirming to get off the bike.

“Hold on.” I unsnapped the harness and helped her off the bike. Instead of running into the dance studio, she took off down the walkway toward Crew Custom Cycle.

“Stormy is waiting.” Not that she was going to listen. “You’re going to be late.”

She flipped up her face shield and hollered, “That’s Romeo’s Harley.” She tugged open the glass door to the motorcycle shop.

Fucking Romeo. I followed her into the motorcycle shop. Romeo had her on the counter while he unclipped her helmet. She was deep in her retelling of her ride on the bike.

Blade came into the reception area of the bike shop and tipped his head toward the connected unit. Crew Custom Cycle took up two of the units in the strip mall. One side for repairs, the other for reselling rebuilds. Then there was Stormy’s dance studio next to Hana’s tattoo shop at the end of the row.

I left Lili with Romeo and followed Blade into Jazzy’s office. “Give us a minute,” Blade said to Jazzy.